2021 NFL Draft: Why Marvin Wilson slid clear off the draft boards
By Kelvin Hunt
The 2021 NFL Draft saw four of six draft eligible FSU players drafted, but the biggest surprise was defensive tackle, Marvin Wilson.
Wilson could have declared for the 2020 NFL Draft last season, but decided to come back even though most analysts had him as a first or second-round selection.
Most thought it to be a big win for Mike Norvell and the coaching staff since the previous coaching staff failed to adequately recruit quality defensive tackles.
The defensive line was supposed to be the strength of the defense, but that wasn’t the case at all. Marvin Wilson had a poor season, appearing in only 6 games and playing nowhere near the level of the previous season.
Despite the disappointing season and lack of impressive Pro Day performance, I think most FSU fans believed Wilson would be drafted between Thursday and Saturday.
However, that wasn’t the case, and Marvin Wilson never appeared in Mel Kiper Jr’s, top 10 available players for the duration of the NFL Draft.
The only time Wilson’s named came about was when Tampa Bay had the final pick, also called Mr. Irrelevant. Analysts mentioned Tampa Bay could select him since he played at FSU, and there were a lot of Seminole fans in the Tampa Bay area.
Tampa Bay didn’t draft him, and here we are. How does this happen? How does a player go from draft lock to not hearing their name at all?
The #Browns are signing former Florida State DT Marvin Wilson to a huge rookie free-agent deal that includes a $30,000 signing bonus plus $162,000 in guaranteed base salary, per source. Cleveland won a swift bidding war for Wilson, one of the top players to go undrafted.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 1, 2021
Marvin Wilson will sign with the Cleveland Browns as an undrafted free agent, but here are my three reasons Marvin Wilson didn’t hear his name in the draft.